


walk with me

by yesterdaychild



Series: Happy Eruri Week! [5]
Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Erwin is a dork, Future Fic, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-31
Updated: 2013-12-31
Packaged: 2018-01-06 21:59:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 782
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1111986
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yesterdaychild/pseuds/yesterdaychild
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the war, what's next? Levi finds some closure.</p><p>Written for Day Five of Eruri Week. Prompt: Christmas / Happy Birthday Levi!</p>
            </blockquote>





	walk with me

**Author's Note:**

> This is actually happy. Yay.
> 
> Originally posted on tumblr: http://erwindanchou.tumblr.com/post/71065390726/eruri-week-day-five-walk-with-me

Levi stepped out of the inn on the edges of Karanese District, leaving the warmth and rowdiness of the crowd within. It was full of soldiers celebrating the end of the war on the Titans. Armistice had been declared on the same day as Christmas, and everybody had just checked themselves into the nearest inns and started drinking and eating and making merry like there was no tomorrow. 

It was all slightly too much for Levi. He had never led a normal life, and had never had much cause for celebration. Besides, debauchery was generally not really his thing.He climbed up to the top of Wall Rose. The sky was clear, such that he could see the stars. He felt the urge to be near them; maybe if he reached up he could just about touch them. It was strange being free enough to entertain his whims and fantasies. He sat at the edge of the Wall, right next to the now-useless cannons. Somebody had come up and decorated one with a bit of tinsel, which shone under the moonlight.What if, he mused, he just toppled right over the Wall? Would anyone mourn his death? Now that the war was over, what use was humanity’s strongest soldier?He heard gravel crunch from behind him; somebody was coming up the stairs. He tensed, feeling naked and vulnerable, having removed his maneuver gear at the behest of Hange. The morbid part of him thought,  _Well, here’s a good way to test my question_.“I thought I’d find you up here,” he heard a familiar gravelly voice say. Erwin came up to him, and with a little difficulty, sat at the edge with him. “Not thinking of jumping without your 3DMG, are you?”Levi leaned against him a little. “Just wondering what’s next. For me. For you. For us.”Erwin shrugged. “A lot of reports, I suppose. Inquisitions about whether what we did was the right thing. Years of revisionists evaluating whether our sacrifices were worth it, as if they could have done better. What else?”Trust the Commander to have reports on the top of his to-do list the day the war was over. “You should be celebrating with your men,” Levi told him.“I am,” Erwin said, somewhat smugly. “Celebrating with my man, I mean.”Levi resisted the urge to roll his eyes. “Go away,” he said but there was no bite in it, and he didn’t lift his head from Erwin’s arm.They were quiet for awhile, until Erwin asked, “What’s on your mind?”Levi didn’t answer straightaway. He contemplated the stars again, marvelling at how they clearly they twinkled in the sky. Even they had come out to celebrate.“Did I ever tell you Christmas is also my birthday?” Levi murmured. “Happy birthday,” Erwin murmured in return, but Levi was continuing. “I mean, it was something the old gang decided for me. I never knew my birthday, so they decided that Christmas was as good a date as any. It gave them a good excuse to be irresponsible once a year, I suppose.”It was one of the rare times that Levi was volunteering information about the people he had been close to before he’d joined the Survey Corps. So Erwin kept quiet and listened.“Someone once told me - it might have been one of them, actually - that the stars were made of the dust of people who had gone before us. It was a way of feeling a little less alone, a little more like our companions still walked with us, I suppose.” Levi breathed in, trying to fill the hollow emptiness in his heart. “What do you think?”Erwin looked up at the stars and nodded toward then. “Then I sure hope there’s a star up there for my arm,” he joked lightly, nudging Levi slightly. Levi laughed softly.“Levi,” Erwin said, more seriously this time. “You know you can spend the rest of your life with me, right?”

 

Levi was silent for a very long time, so Erwin finally turned to look at him.

 

Tears were streaming down Levi’s face, glistening slightly in the moonlight. This was not the first time he had ever seen Levi cry, but it surprised him because he hadn’t known his words would have had that effect.

 

Levi shook his head, trying to smile, but failing, through the tears. “I guess I need to get used to taking you for granted.”

 

Erwin put his good arm around Levi’s shoulders, and Levi turned his face inward, to bury into the crook of Erwin’s shoulder. 

 

"My silly corporal," Erwin said affectionately, hugging Levi close and pressing a smile into his hair. "Happy birthday."

 


End file.
